China's cross-border e-commerce leader DHgate showcased its vision of a fairer, more diverse global trading system Friday with the launch of a two-week workshop aimed at empowering small business women from around the world.

The APEC Women Connect Capacity Building programme is a deep dive into globalization and the Chinese economy, and a once in a lifetime opportunity for more than 20 female participants from 9 countries who will spend 12 days touring China - half in Beijing and half in the southern commercial hub of Hangzhou. Each day offers a unique educational opportunity. A series of seminars will focus on topics such as global value chains, online branding, and digital trading, offering participants in-depth discussions about real-life issues, as well as education and networking opportunities.

The goal of the workshop is to teach women to use digital solutions to realize their entrepreneurial dreams, and is sponsored jointly by DHgate and the University of International Business and Economics, as well as China's Ministry of Commerce.

DHgate has also brought in collaborative support from some of the luminaries of the tech and finance world. Shirley Yao, Head of International Growth for Google China, will speak to participants on the subject of how to grow international businesses.

Site visits include Google and Didi Chuxing, as well as several industrial parks and opportunities to speak with Chinese entrepreneurs.

'We share mutual challenges, common problems, different cultures, ad diverse political and economic traditions, that is why the world is so beautiful,' said Wu Yabin, Executive Director of the Research Institute for Global Value Chains, in the keynote speech opening the workshop Friday.

Co-host DHgate, one of China's B2B e-commerce leaders, is uniquely placed to offer object lessons to these small businesswomen. Diane Wang, DHgate's Founder and CEO, launched the company as a startup in 2004 and has focused DHgate's mission on connecting small businesses around the world with each other.

Ms. Wang has long been an advocate for a more inclusive trade, meaning trade with more small businesses, more women, and more diversity. Now, as globalization appears increasingly in crisis, it is more important than ever to find ways for its benefits to be shared more widely. DHgate sees empowering female-owned small businesses to export and import as a way to accomplish this task.

DHgate is to date the only e-commerce platform which is dedicated to serving small and medium-sized retailers worldwide, by integrating the whole ecosystem together from logistics to payment, from marketing to customs clearance, to lower the entry barriers for SMEs to access global markets.

DHgate expects that, though this unique opportunity, more and more people will soon be able to share China's digital trading skills and technology, transforming the global economy for the better.